1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method and system for packetised content streaming in which content is segmented at a server into potentially repeatable parts in a content stream sent by the server platform to a remote client platform. Examples of packetised content streams include Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) streaming. The invention in particular but not exclusively further relates to a method and system for mobile VOIP optimisation in an Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) environment.
2. Description of Related Art
The concept of communicating with VOIP clients such as personal computers (PCs) using wired connections whether permanent (e.g. LAN based), always-on (e.g. broadband) or dial-up is well known. Several codecs are available for VOIP clients to encode speech packets over wired connections which are compatible with the characteristics of wired internet protocol (IP) and which support audio streaming with good speech quality of service (QoS).
However, when a mobile VOIP client is used to communicate in a wireless environment, for example, such as over a General Packet Relay Service (GPRS) network, new link characteristics are introduced which affect the perceived QoS. For example, in a wireless environment there is generally a reduction in bandwidth compared with that available over a wired environment. Packet latency may increase (for example, delays of 1 to 2 seconds may be perceived at each end of the transmission) and packet loss may increase. Moreover, the codecs used in GPRS generally need to be less bit-rate intensive than those used for a wired environment as the IP over GPRS charging is often based on the amount of data sent (e.g., by the byte).